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Radical Pacifism, Civil Rights, and the Journey of Reconciliation

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Radical Pacifism, Civil Rights, and the Journey of Reconciliation 09-Mollin 12/2/03 3:26 PM Page 113 The Limits of Egalitarianism: Radical Pacifism, Civil Rights, and the Journey of Reconciliation Marian Mollin In April 1947, a group of young men posed for a photograph outside of civil rights attorney Spottswood Robinson’s office in Richmond, Virginia. Dressed in suits and ties, their arms held overcoats and overnight bags while their faces carried an air of eager anticipation. They seemed, from the camera’s perspective, ready to embark on an exciting adventure. Certainly, in a nation still divided by race, this visibly interracial group of black and white men would have caused people to stop and take notice. But it was the less visible motivations behind this trip that most notably set these men apart. All of the group’s key organizers and most of its members came from the emerging radical pacifist movement. Opposed to violence in all forms, many had spent much of World War II behind prison walls as conscientious objectors and resisters to war. Committed to social justice, they saw the struggle for peace and the fight for racial equality as inextricably linked. Ardent egalitarians, they tried to live according to what they called the brotherhood principle of equality and mutual respect. As pacifists and as militant activists, they believed that nonviolent action offered the best hope for achieving fundamental social change. Now, in the wake of the Second World War, these men were prepared to embark on a new political jour- ney and to become, as they inscribed in the scrapbook that chronicled their traveling adventures, “courageous” makers of history.1 Radical History Review Issue 88 (winter 2004): 113–38 Copyright 2004 by MARHO: The Radical Historians’ Organization, Inc. 113 09-Mollin 12/2/03 3:26 PM Page 114 114 Radical History Review Over the next two weeks, these men would take extraordinary risks to put their ideals to the test. They called their trip the Journey of Reconciliation, a proj- ect jointly organized by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and the pacifist Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR). Traveling in small interracial teams, the men of the Journey intentionally defied Jim Crow seating arrangements on public buses and trains. Black next to white, they sat wherever they chose, provoking threats, ver- bal harassment, physical brutality, and arrests. But in the spirit of Gandhian nonvi- olence, they refused to respond in kind and instead embraced their hardships with relish. The Journey’s leaders celebrated the project as a crucial step in the struggle for black civil rights. Just as importantly, they hoped that the power of their witness would spark a nonviolent movement for social and political change.2 The 1947 Journey of Reconciliation is best known today as the precursor to the more famous Freedom Rides of 1961 that dramatically challenged the institu- tions of racism in the American South. But while the project’s organizers and team members certainly hoped that their efforts would serve as a catalyst and inspiration for future actions, they could not have predicted at the time what the legacy of their actions would be. To the radical pacifists who spearheaded the trip, the Journey signified something else: the first national project of a nascent nonviolent move- ment, the logical outcome of over a decade of militant resistance to Jim Crow, and a visible reflection of the pacifist commitment to interracial justice and egalitarian social relations. The presence of so many pacifists outside civil rights attorney Spottswood Robinson’s office illustrates a key piece of this project and a primary focus of this article: the very concrete ways in which the Journey linked the causes of peace and racial justice in the years that immediately followed World War II. Historians read- ily recognize the important connections between the pacifist and civil rights move- ments of this time. Many scholars highlight the radical pacifist involvement with CORE, where activists readily deployed the innovative tactics of nonviolent resis- tance, as a major contribution to the black freedom struggle. Beyond tactical inspi- ration, pacifists’ work, in what sociologist Aldon Morris dubs “movement halfway houses,” provided important organizational and financial resources to the escalating civil rights protests of the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. Yet the relations between these two different movements did not prove as harmonious as this may sound. A much more complex reality instead lay behind the visage of interracial and intermovement cooperation.3 The all-male composition of the Journey team similarly obscured another critical dynamic in the radical politics of the postwar years. This photo presents a familiar vision of masculine militancy, one that dominates much of the literature on contemporary social movements and modern struggles for social and political change.4 Yet women had long participated in a range of protest movements, not only as feminists or within women’s organizations but as female activists who readily 09-Mollin 12/2/03 3:26 PM Page 115 Mollin | The Limits of Egalitarianism 115 worked beside men to advance the causes of their concern.5 Despite this shared his- tory, no women traveled on the Journey of Reconciliation. Their absence from this project, and from the photograph, not only begs the question of why they were miss- ing, but suggests that the radical pacifist quest for “brotherhood” was not nearly as egalitarian as activists intended. The Journey of Reconciliation was an ambitious project that epitomized both the creativity and the limitations of the 1940s radical peace movement and its effort to take the lead in the politics of postwar dissent. The Journey highlighted the criti- cal relationship between pacifism and civil rights, even as it underscored the difficul- ties inherent in bringing these two movements together. It also revealed the oppor- tunities and obstacles that radical women encountered as they joined forces with radical men in an idealistic effort to change the world. As a training ground for future actions, the Journey of Reconciliation illuminated the power of militant non- violence to expand the boundaries of political debate, even as it highlighted the lim- its of postwar struggles for social and political change. ..... The story of the Journey of Reconciliation really begins in the 1930s, when American pacifism, racial militancy, and radical activism emerged as potent forces for change within a climate of economic desperation and political turmoil. In the midst of the Great Depression, women, students, and clergy led an American peace movement that reached heights of mass influence and support never before seen. At the same time, the American left, and particularly the Communist Party (CP), increased its appeal by positioning itself as the voice of the black and white working classes and by utilizing organizing strategies that gave it a reputation for militant and effective lead- ership. The work of the CP, of course, dovetailed with that of the newly formed Con- gress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), whose successful union-organizing cam- paigns in the steel and auto industries epitomized the power of grassroots protest to generate concrete political gains. Similarly, the combined efforts of communists, socialists, and black nationalists contributed to a rise in northern and southern civil rights activity that made the issue of race impossible to ignore. Like other activists of their milieu, American pacifists did not limit themselves to working on behalf of a single cause, but instead worked with and were influenced by political develop- ments in all of these movements. This meant that for many, peace and justice became deeply intertwined.6 World War II, however, brought profound changes to the scope and charac- ter of the American peace movement. With the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, public support for antiwar sentiments evaporated overnight— although it should be noted that more radical pacifists lost key allies in the CP six months earlier with the collapse of the Nazi-Soviet Pact. Pacifists of all persuasions suddenly found themselves politically isolated and publicly derided. By early 1942, 09-Mollin 12/2/03 3:26 PM Page 116 116 Radical History Review most Americans viewed pacifism as irrelevant at best and treasonous at worst. Com- mitted pacifists mostly turned inward, seeking solace in small communities of sup- port and organizations like the FOR, which promoted conscientious objection as a form of moral and personal witness. Nevertheless, a determined cohort of militant pacifists struggled to sustain the activism and relevancy of their prewar protests. They resisted the draft and went to jail. They demonstrated in the streets. And as they did so, they forged a new radical pacifist identity.7 These radical pacifists rooted themselves in the leftist traditions of the 1930s, but also in the activist Christianity of the Social Gospel and the absolute pacifism espoused by the historic peace churches. They thus defined themselves by a com- mitment to nonviolence and to an egalitarian ethos of “brotherhood” that reflected their Left and Christian roots. From the radical pacifist perspective, “the principles of brotherhood” united people across differences of race, class, nationality, and gen- der. One did not kill one’s brother or inflict violence on fellow members of what black FOR Race Relations Secretary James Farmer typically called “the human fam- ily.” Radical pacifists believed that this human family was comprised of equal part- ners who related to each other as brothers and sisters rather than as parent and child. This rhetorical commitment to an egalitarian brotherhood, to the belief, as FOR leader A. J. Muste once stated, that there existed “a fundamental kinship among all men,” pervaded all aspects of their organizing efforts.8 In the early 1940s, radical pacifists quickly turned their attention to the civil rights struggle.
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